The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) says it does not know the origin of reports around the signing of a deal between Siyaya TV and the South African Football Association (Safa), for rights to air all national football team matches.
This comes after City Press reported on Sunday that new kid on the block Siyaya TV had inked a R1 billion deal with Safa, giving it the rights to broadcast all Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana matches - effective from May next year.
The deal would mean the SABC, which currently holds these rights (including coverage for all other national sides) until its contract expires at the end of April, will have to then buy national soccer broadcasting rights from Siyaya.
Contradicting commentary
SABC spokesperson Kaiser Kganyago this morning rubbished the reports, saying the state broadcaster was "as surprised as everyone else to hear this. We don't even know who [Siyaya TV] is and Safa said in a meeting last night that it had not signed any agreement with them."
The City Press cites Safa CEO Dennis Mumble as saying: "Yes, we have signed a new major broadcast deal and have informed the SABC. Unfortunately, that's all I can say, as we will be making an official announcement soon."
Safa was not immediately available for comment, but has issued a joint statement with the SABC, saying the two met to "iron out matters" yesterday. "Safa and the SABC met to discuss the partnership that it established many years ago and to iron out some matters relating to media reports that arose over the past weekend.
"The meeting resolved that Safa and the SABC will establish two groups to discuss matters of operational and legal concern to both parties. The teams will commence their discussions tomorrow (Tuesday, 5 August) to ensure the relationship remains on solid ground."
Pay-TV ambitions
Siyaya TV is one of the five hopefuls that was issued a pay-TV licence by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) in April.
Siyaya and the other four candidates (Close-T Broadcast Network Holdings, Mindset Media Enterprises, Mobile TV and Kagiso TV) were at the time given three months to comply with ICASA's conditions - including confirmation of local content and programming content agreements.
ICASA is expected to wrap up the new licences later this month, and Siyaya expects to launch next June. The regulator said in April that it would carry out an inquiry into premium content in a bid to open up SA's monopolistic pay-TV market - which is about 95% dominated by MultiChoice's DStv.
Share